Missing emails

[John B]

I went to check my emails today and found that my whole email account had
disappeared. I had not used the account since 20 Nov. In the interim I have
renewed my Norton 360 and wondered if that may have caused the problem. I am
using Vista. Anyway I followed the prompts for adding an account and reinput
the original account details. This went ok and a load of new emails arrived
but none of the old messages were showing. I then rebooted the system and the
original account appeared with all the old messages but not the new ones. Now
I can’t find the new messages. Have I created a duplicate account, if so
where is it and what do I do now? Can anyone help please?

 

[Gary VanderMolen \(MVP\)]

Norton security products are among the top three troublemakers for
Windows Mail. Symptoms often don't surface until several months have
gone by, or until an update occurs.
First, be sure to disable its email scanning, for the reason explained here:
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm

Disabling the Norton program is often insufficient. If so, do a trial uninstall,
followed by using their debris removal tool:
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

Instead of uninstalling your antivirus, another option is to upgrade to
Windows Live Mail, which is more resistant to the adverse effects of overly
intrusive antivirus products: http://download.live.com/wlmail

 

[John B]

Gary, thank you. I have taken your advice and disabled the email scanning.
However, I haven't been able to recover the emails that arrived on the "new"
or "duplicate" account. Don't know if I'm making sense but do you have any
more advice?

 

[mac]

Gary, thank you. I have taken your advice and disabled the email scanning.
However, I haven't been able to recover the emails that arrived on the
"new"
or "duplicate" account. Don't know if I'm making sense but do you have any
more advice?

Do you still have the second account @ tools>accounts?
If so it will need to be deleted at some point, (not just yet), or you could
send or receive duplicate messages?

Before you proceed with what follows just check that the messages are not
hidden in your Inbox, this can happen when 'Group Messages by Conversation'
is selected @ View>current view, disable it, (Alt V V G). Does the new mail
now show?

Unless you have WM set to 'leave a copy of each message on the server' then
the first account to poll it for mail will clear the server.
tools>accounts>select the account>properties>advanced tab.
That is why when you set up the new account it only collected new mail (Nov
20+) and cleared the server.
The old account when it reappeared only showed old mail, (pre Nov 20), the
new account had taken the recent mail, as per above.

Both of the accounts polled the same online mailbox, so all mail should have
gone to the same WM Inbox?

Maybe WM created a second Inbox? Never known this to happen before 'BUT' one
never knows with Norton involved

Take a look at the WM message store for a 2nd Inbox?
Tools>options>advanced tab>maintenance button>Store Folder button, copy that
location, cancel your way out of there. Now paste the location to the
Start>Run line>ok
That should open your WM store in windows explorer, click on Local Folders,
do you have 2 inbox entries?

 

[John B]

Mac, I followed all your instructions step by step.
Firstly, the second account is not listed in tools>accounts.
Group Messages by Conversation was not selected.
There is no second Inbox.
Thank you for all your help.

One additional piece of information that may be relevant and perhaps I
should have mentioned before: There are 4 user accounts on my computer. At
the start of all this, when I logged in to my user account, my desktop had
lost all the personalization and my WM account was missing. This was when I
set up the second WM account. I was then prompted to shut down. When I
rebooted, the desktop had inexplicably restored to normal and my original WM
account had returned but no sign of the second account. Does this help or are
the missing emails now lost in the ether?

 

[mac]

Mac, I followed all your instructions step by step.
Firstly, the second account is not listed in tools>accounts.
Group Messages by Conversation was not selected.
There is no second Inbox.
Thank you for all your help.

One additional piece of information that may be relevant and perhaps I
should have mentioned before: There are 4 user accounts on my computer. At
the start of all this, when I logged in to my user account, my desktop had
lost all the personalization and my WM account was missing. This was when
I
set up the second WM account. I was then prompted to shut down. When I
rebooted, the desktop had inexplicably restored to normal and my original
WM
account had returned but no sign of the second account. Does this help or
are
the missing emails now lost in the ether?

Did you check all the other Windows User accounts to see if you set the
account up in one of those?

Other than that?

Regards Steve.
MS-MVP. MAIL. [DTS] UK.

 

[John B]

Yes I had checked the other user accounts and it wasn't there.
Many thanks for your efforts. Much appreciated. Happy new year.
John

Mac, I followed all your instructions step by step.
Firstly, the second account is not listed in tools>accounts.
Group Messages by Conversation was not selected.
There is no second Inbox.
Thank you for all your help.

One additional piece of information that may be relevant and perhaps I
should have mentioned before: There are 4 user accounts on my computer. At
the start of all this, when I logged in to my user account, my desktop had
lost all the personalization and my WM account was missing. This was when
I
set up the second WM account. I was then prompted to shut down. When I
rebooted, the desktop had inexplicably restored to normal and my original
WM
account had returned but no sign of the second account. Does this help or
are
the missing emails now lost in the ether?

Did you check all the other Windows User accounts to see if you set the
account up in one of those?

Other than that?

Regards Steve.
MS-MVP. MAIL. [DTS] UK.


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